EFCCA Academy - Certified Patient Experts

EFCCA is embarking on an exciting new project under the title "EFCCA Academy- Training Certified Patient Experts". The pilot phase will be launched beginning of 2018.

The idea of this project came about following several major surveys in recent years that highlighted main issues within the unmet needs of the IBD community. The EFCCA Academy is a pioneer project with the aim to provide specialized training addressing these issues and will instruct Certified Patients to raise awareness on IBD. Certified Patients will be trained in public speaking, communication skills and in strategic topics, such as life management with IBD, patient rights, work discrimination and labor rights. They will effectively use their own patient experiences and the findings of several EFCCA surveys.

The Academy will aim to develop partnerships within the IBD HCP community such as ECCO, UEG, ESPGHAN, EMA, etc. Cooperation could include developing topics covering guidelines – basics, nutrition, medications, communication with patients adult/pediatric), how to deal with the health care system, how to deliver patient community’s message to pharma companies and how to handle pharma representatives, how to convey the message that IBD is an invisible illness etc.

The training will include face-to-face workshops and courses via EFCCA’s online learning platform. Following the pilot phase the project will be taken to the local level using local languages allowing Certified Patient Trainers to train new Certified Patients locally.